


Cogs like Stars

by argle_fraster



Category: Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Genre: F/F, accidentally porn, summons meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-17
Updated: 2012-07-17
Packaged: 2017-11-10 03:54:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/461928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/argle_fraster/pseuds/argle_fraster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luca watches Rydia summon and begins to create airship models based on the creatures she sees.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cogs like Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Stealth_Noodle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stealth_Noodle/gifts).



> I do hope you enjoy this, Stealth_noodle, it was very fun to write. <3
> 
> Written for this prompt: "FFIV:TAY, Rydia & Luca (or Rydia/Luca, I am always up for that!). Watching Rydia summon Eidolons provides Luca with inspiration for new airship designs."

i.  
Ifrit is all coiled heat and rippling muscle. He moves like the flames themselves, smoldering on the ground until the dirt is scorched and black beneath his hands, and Luca thinks maybe they could make an airship like that. Something that is molten, like the oceans of magma that surround the castle. She watches Rydia summon the firebeast and takes a note of the way he moves, the way his claws retract when the flames lick up around his arms.

In the workshop, she makes plans: talons of steel that can cut through stone, a line of heat at the bottom that funnels directly from the firebox suspending the ship itself. She wants the ship to be red, like the summon, like the _fire_ , and she knows that with the temperature on the underbelly, flying over the lava won't be a problem.

 

ii.  
Watching Rydia summon Shiva is much different. Shiva feels _foreign_ in the Underworld. She is ice and crystals and a breath of air so chilled it leaves icicles in its wake. When Rydia summons Shiva, she _dances_ , like Luca is told that snow flies across the wind. Luca is transfixed by the summon - mesmerized by the creature's graceful, liquid movements.

The airship based on Shiva is sleek and silver, covered with a reflective surface that sparkles like Shiva's skin does. Luca spends all of her energy on the engine so that it moves with the grace of the creature, fueled by cogs and oil and grease rather than pure magical energy.

This time, when the airship is completed, Rydia seems to notice. She doesn't say anything when Luca debuts it outside the castle, but the corners of her mouth quirk upwards, and Luca thinks she knows.

 

iii.  
It's amazing how each of the summons can be so different. When Rydia summons Ramuh, the air crackles with electricity. Ramuh is more similar to the machines that Luca builds, because he seems to operate on the same currents; he harnesses lightning the way that the airships store momentum, releasing it in a focused stream of shocking noise and light.

Luca likes Ramuh, though she isn't as entranced as with Shiva. Still, it's good practice for another design, an airship that reflects enemy fire and turns it back around. Luca likes working on Ramuh's airship because she feels at home. It is schematics that she has been drawing since she could speak, and she likes bringing the idea of the ships back down to something familiar, even if, at the heart, it's not.

"I like this one," Rydia says, after it's completed and she's admiring the sharp edges of the outer hull parked atop the red rocks. "It feels powerful."

"It is," Luca agrees. She's pleased by the compliment.

 

iv.  
Now that she knows Rydia is paying attention to what she's doing, the labor she is exhausting herself over during long nights in the workshop, Luca begins another design in secret. It feels almost wrong to be modeling an airship after the Mist Dragon; after all, it is Rydia's mother's dragon, the summon that, once called, bends its neck down so that Rydia can run her fingers gently over its snout. The Mist Dragon is at once terrifying and gentle, a clash of emotions so odd that Luca can't help but be amazed by it. She is fascinated by the curve of the dragon's wings and the long tips of its scales.

Creating an airship based on the creature is difficult, but rewarding. The ship, in the end, is so light it's nearly pearl in color, with sails that protrude from the sides and flutter backwards - it looks a bit like ships on the Upperworld, the ones that Luca has seen through picture books and drawings that Yang brings her sometimes from the court artists. Instead of riding on the blue-capped waves, it glides through the air as a loving and terrible matriarch.

Rydia doesn't say anything immediately when she is introduced to it. She bites down on her lip and Luca has a sharp flash of guilt, like she's taken something that never should have been shared and _ruined_ it, turned it into something it should never be.

But finally, Rydia moves to lay a hand against the side, running her fingers over the sheen of the metal.

"It's beautiful," she says, very softly.

"I don't want it to be used for war," Luca tells her.

Rydia's smile is wistful, her gaze locked on the ship itself. "But it can be. That's what it was made for."

"Sometimes there is beauty in things created for destruction," Luca says, hesitantly.

The full smile she gets in return - heavy with understanding - is worth the months spent working on the Mist Dragon ship.

 

v.  
Rydia moves in a way that is both radically unlike and remarkably similar to the summons she calls upon. Her hair is strewn across the pillow like Medusa's curls, her muscles coiling and contracting just like Ifrit's rippling arms; when she gasps, there is a puff of a Blizzard spell that turns to mist in the air.

Luca loves the way that Rydia writhes under her hands. She feels like _she's_ the one calling upon a great and powerful creature, only to have it subdued at her fingertips. She loves the scent and taste of the sweat slick on Rydia's skin when she presses her lips against the woman's bare stomach, pouring everything she can into the action.

Her fingers slide down the length of Rydia's waist, curving over her hipbones and then down her thighs, listening to the sighs and moans that the movement elicits in response.

"You taste like magic," Luca whispers to the inside of Rydia's thigh. She wonders if anything will ever compare to the feel of it, the feel of _them_ , of magic twisted and aching between their mouths. She leans in to press another kiss there, moving inward, sliding a finger in and curling back as she finds Rydia with her mouth and licks a long, hot swipe upwards. Rydia's entire form trembles and bucks beneath her.

And it's even better later, when the other woman returns the favor, when Rydia's tongue is buried within her and Luca can see stars, stars like the twinkle in the sky of the Upperworld, exploding across her vision.


End file.
